In the electronics industry, manufacturers and developers have sought to increase product performance, speed and capacity, as well as the profits derived therefrom, through miniaturization. Likewise, the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and related industries have sought similar benefits through miniaturization and automation of operations and processes performed in those industries. Performance of more and more operations in less and less space has thus become of primary interest in these industries. Space, therefore, while perhaps not the final frontier, remains an area that invites substantial exploitation.
To achieve this miniaturization the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have recently applied some of the same technologies which proved effective in the electronics industry, such as photolithography, wet chemical etching, laser ablation, etc., to the microfabrication of fluidic devices for use in chemical and biological applications. For example, as early as 1979, researchers reported the fabrication of a miniature gas chromatograph on a silicon wafer (discussed in Manz et al., Adv. in Chromatog. (1993) 33:1-66, citing Terry et al., IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices (1979) ED-26:1880). These fabrication technologies have since been applied to the production of more complex devices for a wider variety of applications.
Some examples of microfluidic devices and systems for performing complex reactions, analyses and syntheses are described in, e.g., Published International Application No. WO 98/00231, WO 98/22811, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,779,868 and 5,858,195, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. Many of the systems developed to date operate by serially introducing samples into a particular analysis channel, wherein the samples are individually analyzed. Higher throughput systems are generally provided by multiplexing the basic system, i.e., incorporating multiple identical analysis channels in parallel, each channel having a separate sample introduction port. In order to further enhance throughput of these systems, systems that are capable of translating serially input compounds into a number of parallel channels for analysis have been developed. These systems are generally termed xe2x80x9cserial to parallel converters.xe2x80x9d Generally, such systems are described in detail in commonly owned Published International Application No. 98/22811, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Despite the development of these systems, it would generally be desirable to provide such systems with enhanced throughput by allowing each analysis unit, e.g., an analysis channel, to be applied to multiple serial analyses of different samples, as well as enhanced control of materials during the serial to parallel conversion process. The present invention meets these and a variety of other needs.
The present invention generally provides microfluidic devices and systems for affecting the serial to parallel conversion of materials introduced into the device or system. The present invention generally accomplishes this by introducing the material or materials to be converted, into an open chamber or field in which constraining flows of materials maintain the cohesiveness of the sample material plugs serially introduced into the open chamber.
In at least one aspect, the present invention provides microfluidic devices that comprise a body structure having a first chamber disposed therein, where the chamber has at least two sets of opposing sides. Also provided is a first sample introduction channel in fluid communication with the chamber on a first side. A first plurality of parallel channels are provided in fluid communication with the chamber on a second side that is not opposite to the first side and a second plurality of channels in fluid communication with the chamber on a third side, the third side being opposite the second side.
The present invention also provides methods of performing serial to parallel conversion of materials. At least one method comprises providing a body having disposed therein an open field chamber having at least first and second sides opposite one another, a first plurality of channels fluidly connected to the first side of the chamber at periodic intervals, and a second plurality of channels fluidly connected to the second side of the chamber at periodic intervals. A quantity of a sample material is introduced into the chamber between the two sides. Flow of the material is directed from the chamber into a subset of the second plurality of channels by directing flow of a carrier material from each of the first plurality of channels into the chamber.